By Roger Segelken
The College of Veterinary Medicine cooperated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a surveillance program for British cattle that were imported to the United States before bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) in England prompted a 1989 embargo on cattle from the United Kingdom.
Federal and state authorities used a pathological incinerator at the veterinary college to cremate several cattle that were given up by American owners.
The so-called BSE surveillance cattle were not believed to have the fatal brain disease and showed no symptoms, but authorities won't know for sure until post-mortem tests are completed. Officials of USDA and state agriculture agencies ordered the animals destroyed.
"The state's acting on the request of the USDA," Nathan Rudgers, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, told news reporters April 10. "And," he said, "the USDA's making that request in the interest of erring on the side of caution..."
The pathological incinerator at Cornell is one of the few in the Northeast with the capacity for cremating large animals. Three BSE surveillance cattle were cremated last week. Two animals were among the 13 ordered destroyed in New York state; the third was from New Hampshire.
Cornell veterinary pathologists assisted veterinarians from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the USDA before the cremations to remove samples from the animals' central nervous systems, including the brain. Samples were sent to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa. There is no diagnostic test for BSE while animals are alive.
The cattle were breeding stock imported to this country after BSE was detected in England in 1986 and before the United States banned importation of cattle from the United Kingdom in 1989 to ensure the health of U.S. herds, said Cornell veterinarian Larry Thompson, director of biosafety at the College of Veterinary Medicine. The animals were kept under surveillance by the USDA, and the owners knew they might have to give up the cattle at any time. English farmers are preparing to destroy millions of cattle because of the apparent link between BSE and brain disease in humans. U.S. owners are being compensated for the loss of their cattle.
The Cornell incinerator, which is licensed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to burn pathological waste, is used for animals with infectious diseases such as rabies as well as for cremation of non-infected animals. Temperatures in the gas-fired incinerator reach 2,000 degrees F. during the three- to four-hour process to destroy infectious organisms and reduce carcasses to sterile ash.
See also, background story from April 4, 1996 Chronicle: | Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page |